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The town now called Mieszkowice was known from its foundation until 1945 under the German name of Berenwalde and later of Bärwalde. To distinguish it from the town of Bärwalde in Pomerania (present-day Barwice), it carried the abbreviation Nm. for Neumark (New March) . In 1945 it was renamed Mieszkowice, after the first historical Polish duke Mieszko I, a scion of the Piast dynasty.

The first record of Bärwalde is a 1295[1] deed under the name of Berenwalde. Most likely, the settlement was owned by a knight of the von Behr family.[1][2] The settlement was developed following a grid of rectangular streets with a central market place.[2] In 1297, St. Mary's Church was first mentioned,[3] and another document gives 1298 as the year when Bärwalde was granted German town law.[1][2] In the late 13th and early 14th century the city walls were constructed,[4] much of which still exist, while the city gates were pulled down in 1867.

In the course of the Polish–Teutonic War the town was burnt down in 1433 by Hussite forces marching through. During the Thirty Years' War, the Swedish field marshal Gustav Horn on 23 January 1631 signed the Treaty of Bärwalde with France[5] against Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg, whereafter the town was devastated by Swedish and Imperial troops several times. The devastations of the war resulted in a severe population drop: only 30 inhabitants remained.[5] From 1650-73 Elias Loccelius, also known as Elias Lockelius or Löckel, (1621–1704) was pastor in Bärwalde and from there he moved to Drossen (today Ośno Lubuskie). He is known as a chronicler of the New March and was an electoral church inspector for Land Sternberg as well. Löckel documented the wartime devastation of the area, including Bärwalde, in his Marchia Illustrata.[5]

Over the next centuries, the town slowly recovered: in 1750, it had about 1,500 inhabitants, and more than 3,500 in 1850, occupied primarily with agriculture.[5] From that period, several 18th-century Fachwerk buildings and the early 19th-century town hall are preserved.[3] When the Kingdom of Prussia reformed her administrative organization after the Napoleonic Wars, the town became part of the Province of Brandenburg created from the territory of the former margraviate. In 1853 a railroad connected it with Kostschin (Kostrzyn). Twenty-three years later the town was connected with Stettin (Szczecin). Gottfried Benn (1886–1956) spent his childhood in the nearby village Sellin (Zielin).[6]

Development of Mieszkowice continued in the following years, especially in the period between 1970-1992 when many new buildings were constructed. In 1997 the whole town was connected to the gas pipeline. In 1998 a new sport centre was opened. Since 2007, a ferry service connects Mieskowice with Güstebieser Loose (de) on the opposite bank of the Oder.[7]